bad banana blog

Observations Notebook

Love this handmade, British oilskin notebook from Merchant & Mills. Available for purchase here, with shipping to anywhere in the world. While you're over there taking a closer look at the notebook, take a look around the site. Operating out of a 500-year-old cottage in Wales, Merchant & Mills sells fabric, patterns, and dress-making accessories with pitch-perfect branding in today's internet age. Old school meets new school.

Brand Name Pencils

Bob Truby's Brand Name Pencils is a website dedicated to, you guessed it, brand name pencils. Neatly organized by brand name and country of origin, it's a virtual pencil box containing virtually every brand of pencil ever made.

Via @pourmecoffee.

Howling Monkey

 

Packaging for Howling Monkey Black and Tan Beer. I rather enjoy the squat little bottles. Designed by Turner Duckworth.

Via The Dieline.

Swiss Chocolate Knife

You know you have a strong brand when your product can be rendered as a delicious chocolate treat. Are you listening Harley-Davidson? Or, better yet, John Deere? Okay, I think I'm just hungry. Purchase your Swiss Chocolate Knife here.

Via Crib Candy.

Firehose

So the other night I went looking for a bottle of wine to go along with a spicy Indian dinner. I headed over to the Riesling area and found a bottle of wine speaking directly to my needs. Firehose. I loved the simple design and unique name. Being a sucker for such things, I took a bottle home. And, I must say, it did the job admirably.

Eugene and Louise Bakery

This is what happens when two imaginative illustrators open up their own bakery and candy shop. Great packaging. Whimsical marzipan characters. A careful attention to every branding detail. Yeah, this is pretty tasty stuff. If you're in the Antwerp area, get a sneak peek of the whole experience at the Lucy penthouse on March 6.

Via Adhunt.

Branded

In China, working at a McDonald's is particularly humiliating.

Via Fast Food News.

A Delightfully Fresh Approach

I absolutely love the branding of this ultra-premium juice from Singapore.
    Wild Bunch & Co features an eclectic epicurean selection of organic juice—and is aimed at upscale bars, restaurants, spas, and offices. You could also get it delivered to your door (if you live in Singapore, that is). The stunning bottles, combined with a classically understated graphic design, is a packaging tour de force. Look how the natural colors of the various juices jump out at you and pull you in. And you just have to love names such as Iron Maiden (carrots, parsley, spinach), Savage Cabbage (cabbage, celery, fennel), and Easy Peazy (carrots, peas, parsnips). Great branding work from Seed in the UK.

Via Springwise.

What's a Brand?

It's this...

As well as this...

El Paso Knows You Don't Know—Hates You For It

El Paso, Texas is about to embark on a bold new branding initiative. According to City Manager Joyce Wilson in an El Paso Times article, "the campaign is the result of market research that found people in several cities had little or no familiarity with this community, or a not-so-positive perception of the community."
    My guess is that's true.
    Wilson then goes on to say "If you don't define who you are, someone else will."
    That's true, too. That's branding in a nutshell.
    So after $285,000 for research and development, the city has chosen a campaign theme of...wait for it...wait for it...
"El Paso, Texas—You Have No Idea."
    Wow.
    I would assume a city wouldn't spend more than a quarter of a million dollars to insult its own citizens, so I have no choice but assume they are insulting the rest of the world. We are all uninformed and should be ashamed of our lack of El Paso knowledge.
    Good lord. How in the world does this theme define who or what El Paso is? It doesn't even move one inch in that direction.
    Even if the rest of the campaign proceeds to tell me all the wonderful things about El Paso (I do like Old El Paso products), this branding effort is mind boggling.
    Research should be the springboard used for creative leaps. In this case, no leap was made. It's a classic case of letting research play the role of creative director.

Via Bill Geist's Zeitgeist